Once we passed through the dark, narrow corridor, the fat, puffed-up Groove-Eye was glaring at us.Last time, Groove-Eye had turned its head to look back before we even got close. But now, with null gone, even when we approached it just stared at us warily—without turning around or deflating its body.Which meant that Groove-Eye had replaced null as the second named boss. …Honestly, it felt more natural this way. Even back then, it had acted so blatantly like a boss mob that I’d been sure it was the second boss. Then it went and deflated its body, chirped at us, and null showed up to take its place instead.Null’s appearance really had been random. The only reason it didn’t stick out more was because the impact was so huge.— “I have that guy.”That was when Gang Jaegyung’s voice came through—more random than even null’s appearance.I heard some rustling, then the sub-monitor showing Gang Jaegyung’s stream turned pure white on cam.And in that white, the object moving farther from the camera—even out of focus—was still recognizable.— “The one Honeybread gave me.”It was the Groove-Eye plush I’d gifted him at the event. Groove-Eye looked as white and fluffy as ever, clearly doing fine. And on its head, since it was summer, was a pair of toy heart-shaped sunglasses sitting neatly in place.Would’ve been downright disappointing if he hadn’t bought those.— “Hello~”Grabbing its tiny attached wings, Gang Jaegyung waved them around as he greeted his viewers. The chat window showed his audience melting into goo from the cuteness—and practically ascending to nirvana.— “Where do I keep it? Usually just on my bed… Hug it when I sleep? Nah, I don’t toss around in my sleep, so even if there’s a plush nearby, I don’t touch it.”He answered the viewers’ questions one by one, then set the Groove-Eye plush down out of his arms. Then he shrank his cam and fixed it to one corner of the screen.— “Seems like everyone likes it, so I’ll keep it on-screen while we take down the second boss.”Pretty sure it’s not the plush they’re excited about.And so, the Groove-Eye plush joined the Groove-Eye raid party as the cuteness department.— “I don’t know anything from here on, so let’s take it slow.”As he refreshed my buffs, Gang Jaegyung spoke. I double-jumped in acknowledgement, then charged straight at Groove-Eye.System The Abandoned Temple District of the Godless God is sealed.The white-light giant lifeform senses danger and detects instinct.The moment I used an aggro skill and rushed Groove-Eye, the system log popped up. Without even swinging once, Groove-Eye just glared at us and began casting a skill called . It looked like the kind of skill that, like the golem’s, applied self-buffs depending on stance.Once the skill finished casting, an effect surrounded both my and Gang Jaegyung’s characters. Mine was red, his was green.Matching icons appeared in the status bar, so I hovered over mine to check it.Instinct of the Destroyer— “Instinct of the Harmonizer?”Gang Jaegyung checked his debuff and asked, sounding puzzled. I figured his said that because his class was Harmonizer Combat Medic…Then shouldn’t mine be Instinct of the Guardian? Why was it Destroyer?Party Honeybread: This—Before I could type out my suspicion, Groove-Eye cast another skill called in rapid succession. As soon as it went off, my character froze like it was stunned for a second—You are forcibly converted to Guardian to suppress the Instinct of the Destroyer.A penalty is applied to the white-light giant lifeform for abusing authority.Once that message appeared, I was released. Looking around carefully, I couldn’t spot any difference—which made sense, since I was already a Guardian Holy Knight and got forcibly converted to… Guardian.But it was different for Gang Jaegyung, who’d gotten Instinct of the Harmonizer.— “…Isn’t this a Combat Medic skill? Huh.”At his words, I rotated my camera to check his character. The quill pen Jo-gun should have been holding was gone; instead, he held an ornate, elaborate scholar’s tome. The stance without a quill pen but with just the tome wasn’t Combat Medic Harmonizer—it was Combat Medic Slayer.Seeing that, I checked the party list—and I couldn’t help being just as surprised.Holy Knight Guardian Lv.45 | HoneybreadCombat Medic Slayer Lv.45 | Retaking a ClassNull had swapped our skills before, and now Groove-Eye—its presumed underling—was outright changing our job stances. Were they insane?— “These skills are all Slayer skills too. Guess it’s a stance-forcing skill. Kinda like null… But Honeybread, unless I’m mistaken, you’re still Guardian, right?”Party Honeybread: YeahParty Honeybread: Got Destroyer instinctParty Honeybread: thoughAt least I didn’t have to switch to a Destroyer DPS rotation—which was a pain—but why was I getting Destroyer instinct in the first place? Was it random?— “Hmm… I really want to figure out exactly what this mechanic is. Honeybread, mind if we retry? We’re still right at the start anyway.”Party Honeybread: YeahParty Honeybread: goAnd so, with our first mechanic already raising questions, we both stood there and let Groove-Eye’s auto-attacks kill us, turning into two blobs of light.Party Retaking a Class: Let’s try it again with the same stances firstParty Honeybread: YeahFollowing his lead, we kept our stances the same as before and sprinted from the start point back to Groove-Eye. After redoing the lost consumable buffs and getting buffs from Gang Jaegyung, we /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ began again to test the mechanic.Just like before, I pulled aggro first. And, just like before, Groove-Eye cast Detect Instinct right away.And what I got was…Party Honeybread: Still Destroyer?It was Instinct of the Destroyer again.— “I’m still Harmonizer… This time let’s try switching stances.”We once again let its auto-attacks kill us and respawned at the start point, then switched stances. Now, both of us in offensive stance, our party was Holy Knight Destroyer and Combat Medic Slayer. The instinct Groove-Eye detected this time was…Party Honeybread: Still Destroyer;— “And I’m still Harmonizer.”Same result.In the end, we reverted to our original stances and returned to the second boss.— “Are the other parties’ stances fixed too? If so, then it means each person is locked to a specific stance. There must be some condition for it.”While we re-buffed, Gang Jaegyung started speculating, as was fitting for his role. We didn’t have much intel yet from the other parties already clearing Silver Spider, but what was certain was: “The converted stance is already determined.”Which meant unless Groove-Eye used that stance-switching skill again, I’d have to fight it as Holy Knight Guardian, and Gang Jaegyung as Combat Medic Slayer.We were both proficient with both stances, but… if someone could only play one stance, wouldn’t this make the second boss ridiculously hard? Unless the rest of the mechanics were easy and the DPS check lenient, there’d be plenty of complaints.Well, that was Zero Soft’s problem. What we wanted to know was: “What determines that stance?”In Dusk, you could play all jobs on a single character, but since jobs within a race were in rival factions, you had to set a main job so the story wouldn’t get messed up. So I wondered if I’d accidentally set Holy Knight Destroyer as my main…Party Honeybread: Still GuardianThe words “Holy Knight Guardian” were clearly displayed. So that theory was out.And it wasn’t determined by most-played stance either; we’d both stuck to one stance for over a year. Say “Guardian” and you thought Honeybread; say “Jo-gun” and you thought Retaking a Class.With no more leads and time ticking down, we decided to just keep progressing. Maybe something new would come up and solve it naturally.Party Honeybread: GoingFor the fourth time, I charged Groove-Eye, pulling it toward us. Once again, the big, adorable creature beeped as it waddled over to me.It cast Detect Instinct, and—You are forcibly converted to Guardian to suppress the Instinct of the Destroyer.A penalty is applied to the white-light giant lifeform for abusing authority.I remained Guardian; Gang Jaegyung was switched to Slayer.At the same time our stances were changed, Groove-Eye itself got loaded with debuffs. Hovering over the icons revealed that, just as the message said, penalties had been applied.

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